Unfairly criticised for their youthful conviction, the two forwards are now proving their worth at the highest level - and Roy Hodgson stands to benefit

In 2009, Manchester City's sheikhs had their first full tilt at a summer transfer window.

They signed Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor for £25million apiece and Roque Santa Cruz for £17.5m. This after shelling out £32.5m on Robinho and £18m on a bloke called Jo.

With deals like that in the works, it was clear that City's young striking star, Daniel Sturridge, would struggle to get a look-in. He'd have to drop down to a lesser club, surely, because the Premier League's top end was no country for young Englishmen.

Yet Sturridge thought he was above all that and moved to Chelsea instead. Too cocky for his own good, this kid. For 18 months, Sturridge was unable to dislodge Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka from Carlo Ancelotti's team.

So on the day that Roman Abramovich coughed up £50million for Fernando Torres, Sturridge was packed out on loan to Premier League strugglers Bolton. He tore it up at the Reebok and when he returned to Stamford Bridge, under Andre Villas-Boas, Sturridge finally got a sustained run in Chelsea's first team.

Only he was operating in a wide role and so his advisors started briefing that Sturridge was demanding to play as a centre forward, feeling he was better than Drogba, Anelka or Torres.

Getty

Another week, another goal: Sturridge scores against Swansea

Honestly, who did he think he was? Some English kid, operating in the 'World League', employed by oil-rich billionaire owners. He really ought to know his place. On the bench, or out wide, if he was lucky.

And so last January, Sturridge was sold to Liverpool. And after 28 goals in 33 Premier League matches, it has become apparent that this upstart is every bit as good as he thought he was. It is a truth which is becoming apparent to Abramovich and City's sheikhs, now that Sturridge's nine goals in Liverpool's last seven League matches have propelled the true 'little horses' of the title race into a threatening position.

And yet Sturridge has rarely received credit for the sheer bloodymindedness which has seen him emerge as a world-class striker against such considerable odds.

Well, next season Rooney will, in all likelihood, be the captain of Manchester United and England. Over the course of his new five-and-half-year deal, Rooney is likely to become the all-time highest goalscorer for England's national team and its biggest club, overtaking Sir Bobby Charlton on both counts. And unlike Charlton, Rooney has had to compete against global superstars merely to get a game at Old Trafford.

Yet Rooney's wage packet is apparently 'obscene' and so he was pelted with coins by a few dozen Herberts at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

Rooney and agent Paul Stretford have certainly exploited two low points for United, in the autumn of 2010 and now, in the aftermath of Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement, to wring as much money out of the club as possible. The street footballer from the rough end of Liverpool playing the system? How dare he.

Yet while the earnings of any Premier League footballer are an obscenity when set against those of a nurse, they are dwarfed by the earnings of leading American sportsmen. Rooney was 61st in the last Forbes Rich list of the world's highest-earning sportsmen.

And for the man who will captain the national team and the biggest club in the nation which boasts the richest League on the planet, this would have seen him relatively underpaid.

Rooney has not been universally adored by United supporters since his 2010 transfer request. And England fans are sceptical because he has failed to shine at a tournament since breaking through as a teenager at Euro 2004.